ALEC has been around since the 1970s. It was founded by the same oligarchs who brought us the Heritage Foundation. In the organization’s own words, ALEC is “a policy making program that unites members of the public and private sectors in a dynamic partnership.”

Moving past the bland corporate-speak, what these thugs are actually doing is writing boilerplate legislation on behalf of the country’s most powerful industries. And then they, uh, “suggest” to state legislators that it would be really nice if these laws could be passed and nobody gets hurt.

In the past few months, red states have been simultaneously cranking out jillions of new cookie-cutter laws cracking down on unions, immigrants, “voter fraud,” and attempting to privatize education (as well as every other public service that actually benefits real people). The same assembly line is also spitting out legislative end runs around “Obamacare,” renewable energy and environmental protections.

As the two linked articles indicate, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the source of most (if not all) of these laws. So again, what do we need these cardboard cutout “legislators” for? Why don’t we just cut to the chase, eliminate all of these overpaid, over-perked and taxpayer-financed typists and file clerks, and ALEC could simply announce their newest edicts.

Like every other powerful and secretive organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council can get a little, uh, testy when members of the lowly public start coming around and asking questions.

Wisconsin state rep. Mark Pocan was kicked out of an ALEC conference in New Orleans, even though he’s a dues-paying member of ALEC and had received an invitation.

The other networks might have done something on it, but there was the O.J. thing and the Clinton-Lewinsky thing, Princess Di killed in a car crash, the Britney Spears thing. Then, the Charlie Sheen thing and the Casey Anthony thing. You get the idea.